Ring Pops SUCK

I bought an Easter pack of Ring Pops for the boys. I read the back, and there was nothing on the ingredient list that contained milk.
This morning I opened up the pack, and four ring pops, each individually labeled were inside. All four said “May contain trace amounts of Dairy”
I really want to find those Ring Pop guys and punch them. If it may contain dairy, it needs to say that on the OUTSIDE label.

I’ll call them on Monday and complain, but this sucks. Now I don’t have candy for Landon’s Easter basket, since I couldn’t find a vegan chocolate Bunny for him and I as trying to go light on the candy this year.

DNA and illness

I’ve been meaning to do a post about 23andMe for a month now and just not getting around to it.

A couple of months ago, Bobby read The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. I actually just finished this book a few weeks ago. In this book, they talk about cancer risks, along with a lot of other cancer related topics. The book is amazing, although it is sort of depressing in a lot of places, because (as you might expect) in the history of cancer, a LOT of people die of cancer.

Early identification of cancer can be helpful, and there are some cancers with a genetic component, as in, your DNA makes you higher risk. And there are DNA tests that can be done. 23andMe does these tests, and Bobby and I decided to have ours checked.

Let me start out by saying that I do recommend the service. 23&me also helps with genealogy, and they do this neat thing where they tell you how you are related with other people who have also used their service. It’s also great if you are planning to have children, as it indentifies what you are a carrier of, so you can avoid some of the genetic testing or at least be aware of your risk factors. It also tells you your risk for other disease’s, such as Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, Alcohol Dependence, Breast Cancer, Gout, Lupus, Celiac’s, and many others.

The results are informative and useful. For example, I’ve always figured I’d have breast cancer. I mean, I’m not sure why I had that idea. I know part of it is that my Great Aunt had it, and it killed my Grandma Eve. I’ve also been told, by non medical professionals, that the erm, size of my bust increased my odds. It rattled around in my head to the point where I just knew I’d get it. I thought for sure that I’d have the gene that would put me in a high risk category. I don’t. I actually have a slightly decreased risk!

I’m showing a significant risk an illness in my eyes. This is a little frightening, but there are things I can do to lower my risks from the non genetic front, such as having good blood pressure, and possibly wearing sunglasses. Also, I know to look for symptoms and get tested. This is handy, to know what I’m genetically pre-disposed to look out for.

Overall, I really love the site, I really think the information is something everyone should have. I highly recommend

Ollie letter 1.5

Dear Ollie-
Today you are one year and five months old. 17 months you’ve been in our lives, and we love you very much. No letter last month and I’m sorry for that. You’ll find as you get older that these letters are much less regular. I don’t expect to be writing you monthly letters for your whole life, after all.

Let’s see, you had a nasty a ear infection in February. It resulted in you and I at an urgent care until 3 in the morning. You had a hard time with it, but all was well again after a second round of antibiotics. You had a well visit on Feb 16th where you weighed in at 28lbs and 10 oz, in the 95%. You were 33 inches tall, in the 90% and your head was 49 cm. The well visit went beautifully, no issues or concerns. This was the first well visit since before we went into the hospital with that fever when you were new that I didn’t have a ton of questions or concerns. You are exactly on track for your age, except much taller than average.

Sadly, you also got your second hair cut on Feb 16th. Your big brother came home from school with Lice. As a result, we shaved your head and your brother’s head, even though there were no signs of lice on you. This prevented them from being able to spread to you, but it means that you have very short hair now. I look forward to it growing back out. You have the most beautiful hair!

You are totally a walking pro, and prefer it about 80% of the time to any other form of movement, including being carried. Only when you are tired will you consent to being carried. You get going very fast. You are so good at it, it’s hard for me to remember that you were a late walker, and that you haven’t been doing it that long.

We have had some behavior issues with you, mostly relating to you being whining or crying in order to get whatever it is that you want. Most of the time, we were responding to your cries the same way we always have, which meant that we were treating you like a baby, not the toddler you have become. In the last few weeks, we implemented a punishment system for when you misbehave which has greatly increased the general happiness in the family, and has really helped you learn to work on things on your own. Basically we count from 1 to 5, and when we get to five we put you in your room, with the door open and the lights on, so can leave your room when you are ready. This simple thing has improved your grumpy periods and motivated you to learn to play on your own. It’s amazing that you have grown so much and can now tell how to behave. I’m very proud of you!

Your crib broke on March 31, quite unexpectedly. I had planned to give you another three months in the crib, even though I have been worried about you attempting to climb out. You are so tall that I was pretty sure you could have done it if you put your mind to it. Instead, the crib broke! Rather than attempt to find a new one or sleep you in the pack and play, we just went ahead and put together the car toddler bed. You did fine in it the first couple of nights, but last night you fell out of bed around nine pm. We’d placed a pillow there just in case, which cushioned your fall, so you were uninjured. However, you were a bit freaked out. I calmed you down and got you back into bed, and you had no further issues last night.

Overall, you are turning into an adorable little boy. You are growing up so fast, and you have a wonderful smile! Speaking of your smile, you are teething yet again. Your top molars are now coming in! Soon you will have a complete set of teeth, and we will be past your teething trauma.

Much love to you, my adorable little brown eyed boy.
mama

Gamer kids are AWESOME

Yesterday felt like Friday, which was great, but today feels like Monday, which is just bizarre. Also, I dislike April fools day, which is probably why I do things like announce that I’m pregnant on April fools day, only I really was pregnant (The proof is Oliver). Looking at pictures of him from one year ago today brings home how much he’s grown! He’s not a baby anymore!

Last night’s dinner was a lot of fun, I love my friends. I think back to growing up and realize that my parents had NOTHING like the group of friends that I have now, as a parent. Having this immense social network of caring people is such a blessing.

Speaking of growing up, there is a meme going around facebook, one of those “repost this” type things that made me think about my childhood. (For the record, I decided after being on Facebook for about 2 months that I was not going to repost those, no matter how silly, cute, serious, amazing, or funny). I was raised in a household that liked gaming. We had an Atari in the house before I was born. We had a DOS based computer in the house when I was little, I don’t know when we got it, but I know I was playing on it from a young age. I spent hours playing Below the Root, even though I never understood the game. And other games, too, like Frogger and Monopoly, River Raid and Pitfall. My little brother could type the words to bring up games before he could even spell or read.

When a new game system came out, my little brother and I would do whatever it took to get the new system. We worked for hours to buy our Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and whatever else came out. I remember spending even more time playing some of the Final Fantasy games on the SNES. I grew up gamer.

I didn’t start really playing RPGs or Board games (other than the usual suspects like Life, Checkers, Monopoly, Battleship, Connect Four) until College, but I embraced that style of gaming as well.

And I married a gamer. So why is it that people are surprised or annoyed when it becomes apparent my four year old loves gaming as much as my husband and I do? We went to a birthday party for one of Landon’s classmates, and when it came up in conversation that Landon has a DS, the other parents seemed annoyed. Apparently Landon had talked to his friends about the games, and now they all wanted on too. The old, “But Landon has a DS” must be wearing thin.

Landon plays on my iPod, on our DS, on our Wii and our Xbox. Landon asks me every night if we can play Mario tonight. I love sitting down with him to play for a half hour after Oliver is in bed. And we are done playing, we read Landon a couple of books and put him to bed. Landon still runs and plays, still loves to be read to, enjoys talking and playing with friends. He’s smart, and he enjoys video games, just like his parents. I think it’s awesome.

Also, I got a graphic novel version of The Wind in the Willows, and Landon and I are reading it right now. He really seems to be enjoying it, even though the language is above his normal level. I’m not sure what we’ll be reading next, but this is awesome.